What a Victory
by poisonruby
Summary: The war is finally over, the Dark Lord won. Standing over Harry Potter's dead body, he delivers a speech that nobody will ever hear, because there is nobody left. ONESHOT.


**Disclaimer**: Oh, how I wish the characters were mine...All mine...

**Author's Notes**: This was inspired by my other fanfic "The Essence of Snarry". Despite the fact that one was a humorous parody and this is... Actually, I am not quite sure what this is.

**What a Victory**

A figure clad in black stood over the limp form on the floor. Limbs spread out at an odd angle, wand clutched tightly in a motionless hand. A pale face, sharp features. Elegant cheekbones, thin lips pressed in a sarcastic smile... He knew what was coming, of course. But most stunning were the eyes, emerald green and sparkling in the dull light. They should have been empty of all emotion, blank, yet they looked up at the figure in mockery.

"The Boy Who Lived," The figure whispered bitterly, "The Boy Who _Lived_!"

A mirthless laughter carried across the hall of the Ministry of Magic, spreading to every corner, flying through empty corridors, causing windows to shake in their frames.

"Oh yes, he _Lived_ the first time. He was lucky again and again... He evaded me for years, _Lived_ for years...Stolen years, mind you. And what a life he had! Quite the hero, weren't you?" He prodded the immobile form with his foot. "Harry Potter..."

The laugh rang out again, cold and victorious, with no one to hear it.

"Not a single soul." He whispered dreamily, "No one but Lord Voldemort. No one around for miles! No one in the whole world... The Dark Lord did rise again, greater and more powerful than ever before... The Dark Lord got what he wanted, oh yes!"

He walked around Harry Potter's body lying on the intensely polished tiles, and stood in the very middle of the hall. With long, pale fingers he threw back his black hood, revealing a white scalp and a face so grossly disfigured that it looked inhuman.

"Not a single filthy Muggle, moping around on his futile affairs! No Mudbloods and scum, to strut along, thinking themselves wizards! Alas, not even a sole wizard left in the smithereens of this foolish world... I stand alone now, surrounded by the bodies of those who defied me... Even my faithful Death Eaters turned against me in the very end..."

He walked towards the Security stand, where another cloaked figure lay.

"I never thought it was likely, to see _bravery_ from this one." He spoke to the man. Clotted blood obscured half of his face; silvery blond hair covered the other. Only one grey eye could be seen, wide open, completely devoid of life. "You had a great weakness, Lucius. You _loved_. I did not see it of course; perhaps even you did not see it inside yourself. To give your precious life, so freely..."

He stepped over the body and looked down on the one next to it, almost identical but remarkably younger.

"Foolish boy! If it wasn't for your ignorance, you would have lived...Your father, too. You'd both be here, at my side, to keep me company. But to turn against me, at the very end when you saw how extremely near victory was... Foolish, indeed, Draco Malfoy. You died in vain."

He stepped over this body too, not caring about striding on the boy's robes.

"Now, this one was a truly piteous loss. She didn't deserve death, not one bit. She was by my side till the very end, when all others who pledged eternal faith turned against me." He kneeled by a woman's body, gazing down at her dark curls, spread out on the floor, her heavy eyelids, closed forevermore. "I would bring you back Bellatrix Lestrange, if death was not absolute. Yet, even I am powerless now... I admit that you are the only one I truly regret losing. The Dark Lord rewards loyalty, Bellatrix. I will ensure that you receive as full and symbolic a burial ceremony as it is within my almost infinite power to provide. As for your murderer..."

Lord Voldemort looked up from the once beautiful face of his most loyal servant. He stood once more and made his way through the bizarre pattern of bodies, towards one lying alone, away from the rest.

He stopped, looking down upon a tall, thin man. He lay with one hand across his chest, tightly gripping a wand. The Dark Lord remembered how the man fell, as if in slow motion, when he cast the Avada Kedavra. He was prepared to die. Even now there was no fear in his black eyes, but only the last traces of hope.

"Traitor!" Voldemort hissed. "One million times a traitor! It seemed to me that loyalty unblemished is to be suspected, and so I put faith in that crooked allegiance of yours. I thought, he who betrayed so many times already, cannot do it yet again. Alas... Perhaps your true loyalties did not lie with the other side, but neither did they lie with me. I have to admit that you alone have managed to defy the power of my mind, and obscure your secrets..."

His red eyes narrowed as he spoke, cold hatred seeping through his high-pitched voice.

"I saw you kill her, my last remaining loyal servant! And then you threw yourself in front of Harry Potter, stupidly defending the boy! And yet you _knew_; you knew he was a goner. You knew about my Horcruxes, and that he did not manage to destroy them. Why then? Perhaps you did not want the fate as my last surviving servant. Or did you know that I would punish you, for killing _her_?"

He paused again, and turned around. He found the form of Bellatrix with his eyes, and for a moment their red faded to give way to a warm hazel colour. For that one moment, the features of Tom Riddle were recognizable in his disfigured face. He looked down again.

"The Dark Lord always knows, and he does not forgive easily. May you be damned in death, Severus Snape!"

The almost human features easily gave way to the snakelike visage of the Dark Lord Voldemort. He walked on, occasionally stopping in front of victims, his own and those of his Death Eaters, even some killed by the Aurors and the Order of the Phoenix.

"Weasley and that Mudblood..." He paused in front of two figures, lying together on the floor: a lanky red-haired boy, blood seeping from his many wounds, and a slim girl with her head of messy hair on his shoulder. "_They_ stuck by Potter till the very end. They followed him into death, and they will share the worst fate of them all. I offered them power and immortality, but no... Here they are, joined in senseless loyalty.

"And Wormtail, my dim-witted servant. He crossed over in the end. What was it he yelled out? 'I will redeem myself, and die like a true Marauder!' That must be it. What idiocy! _Him_, I'd never have expected to be valiant. Oh and here's Macnair, who finished him off! The werewolf, Remus Lupin, defended his old schoolmate, naturally. It was Remus Lupin, also, who slew Greyback. Surprising, but hardly regretful – Greyback and his pack subsisted by disgusting means.

"Here's the young pink-haired Auror. I never knew her name. Even dead, she gazes at Lupin in reverence! Sickening human nature...

"They said love will defy me, yet here I stand. Alone, and yet victorious. What a victory it was... The world is mine now, the entire world. I am the last remaining wizard, and it is for me to command it. Lord Voldemort had taken over the Wizarding world. He wiped out all grime, perfected it. He proved that love is powerless, and death is absolute. All fools who defied me are now dead.

"Tom Riddle had taken vengeance on his father, and on all those who dared to wrong him, all those who, in their idiocy, hoped that _good_ will reign.

"There is no good. There is no evil. There is only power, and all of that is mine."

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**Author's Note (again)**: This was incredibly hard to right, especially the part about Severus. It didn't help that there was only one character talking the whole time. Please drop a line in the reviews to tell me what you thought... Maybe I should just give up all further attempts to write anything serious...


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